"Something that also taught me how to write that I tell people — I’ve never been a writing teacher, but I say it because it was so helpful to me when I started doing it – is to buy a notebook or a spiral-bound book or something and get a ball-point pen of your choice. And sure people say, “You’ve got to carry around a notebook and jot down ideas” and that is OK, and I adapted that by writing on a folded-up piece of paper and carry it around in my pocket – that’s one thing. But this is different; if you’re reading along and you come to something that’s really beautiful, that really stops you in the eye with its prose, you see it’s true, then I’ll stop or make a note to stop later and open the notebook and copy it out, in quotation marks, of course, and write down – copy that out word for word, with full punctuation, in handwriting."

This is so many things that I've been thinking about lately, but also, with significant technological differences, how I interact with clothing in literature, and the foundation upon which this online practice is built. I do write non-costume related things down, by hand, with quotation marks and a small citation, in another book. But I love the commonplace book reference! I just have to remember to flip back through it now and then, one of the great pleasures and intentions of keeping one in the first place.